Apartheid Protest Held By Students

October 12, 1985|United Press International

South Florida college and high school students joined those from other learning institutions Friday in a national protest day against apartheid and American investment in racially segregated South Africa.

A 3 p.m. news conference at the University of Miami was called by the South Florida Regional Students Against Apartheid. The group is made up of students from UM, Florida Atlantic University, Florida International University, Miami-Dade Community College`s south campus and Edison High School.

``We are all our brother`s keeper. Let us remember that and act upon it,`` said Pamela Douglas, president of FIU Students Against Apartheid. ``If we do not help one another, then there is no help for us.``

Several students in the regional protest group held noon rallies on their campuses.

The news conference was called ``to pressure UM to divest out of South Africa,`` but some of the impact was lost because of the university`s announcement Wednesday that it had sold all of its stock in U.S. companies that do business with South Africa.

University officials insisted the move was financial and not political, but four days before announcing the divestiture, UM president Edward T. Foote wrote an article for The New York Times which said most universities would be hurt by the loss.

``Universities that choose to divest face a danger far greater than higher tuition or lower pension benefits,`` Foote wrote. ``It is a threat to their raison d`etre: the pursuit of knowledge.``

Elsewhere in Florida, about 200 people were expected to attend a protest march Friday evening to Orlando City Hall by the Free South Africa Coalition. The city dropped its requirement for a $30 assembly permit for public gatherings on city property and requirement the gathering group obtain liability insurance.

At the University of Florida in Gainesville, about 100 students marched from the Plaza of the Americas to Tiger Hall. Earlier this year, apartheid protestors chained the building`s doors shut.